Bendigo prepares for expansion with a whole new town

Victoria's three largest regional cities are experiencing surging population growth at a faster rate than many Melbourne metropolitan municipalities.

And Bendigo is showing the way with the biggest single residential development in its history expected to go ahead, transforming a large parcel of farmland on the city's edge into a new community with shops, a main street and thousands of residents.

Bendigo is now home to more than 105,000 people and has an ''aspirational'' target population of 200,000 by 2041. In the 2012-13 financial year it grew by 1.7 per cent, a rate requiring substantial new housing each year.

The Bendigo council has voted to rezone 125 hectares in Maiden Gully, outside but adjoining the city's urban growth boundary, from farming to residential. The decision was a major step towards what is virtually a new town or suburb, with the proposal awaiting a decision from Planning Minister Matthew Guy. A ministerial planning panel has already recommended that the land be rezoned.

The proposed development, which is bordered by bushland that is typical of the district on three sides, would be built with its own town centre, shops (including ''shop-top housing''), community hall, lake and walking and cycling connections. It is about eight kilometres from Bendigo's CBD and has been given the name Forest Park by developer Birchgrove Property.

Trevor Budge, Bendigo's strategy manager, said it was a ''path-breaking'' development and would be unique for country Victoria. ''I think I'd be right in saying there hasn't been one like this in regional Victoria of this scale,'' he said. ''This is the biggest single residential development in Bendigo's history. ''It's probably … three to four times bigger than any other proposal we have dealt with as a single development.''

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It was likely to house about 3300 people and would include a range of block sizes, from 300 to 650 square metres, and houses of varying sizes.

''This will be about 1350 new residential houses. But in contrast to anything else that's gone ahead on the fringes of Bendigo, this will have a town centre - so we're starting to replicate the model that's being used in the growth areas of Melbourne. And that is that you don't just build a housing subdivision, you build a community.''

Mr Budge said Bendigo had to produce about 1000 houses a year to keep up with demand and this development would provide about 10 to 20 per cent of the city's new house demand each year.

Bendigo mayor Barry Lyons said: ''The council's decision to approve the rezoning … was the right one. It is important to plan for future growth and this new estate … is in keeping with how the council would like to see Greater Bendigo develop.''

Twenty-one submissions were made over the rezoning plan, including 12 that opposed it and five that supported it. The remaining four were neutral.